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Friday, August 18, 2017

Wind River

Review by Bob Ignizio

The frozen body of a young woman is discovered on an Arapaho
reservation by US Fish and Wildlife Service officer (and skilled hunter/tracker) Cory
Lambert (Jeremy Renner), setting the plot in motion in WIND RIVER.
The discovery hits Lambert hard. The victim was a friend of his daughter, who
herself died under mysterious circumstances a few years back. So when out of
her depth FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) asks for Lambert’s help, he
agrees.

Writer/director Taylor Sheridan previously wrote the
screenplays for SICARIO and HELL OR HIGH WATER. Like those films,
this is an intelligent, adult crime drama with a touch of social commentary.
And also like those films, it arguably feels more exceptional than it is simply
because the standards have been lowered. I don’t mean to take anything away
from WIND RIVER, but this would just
have been the level of quality audiences would have expected from a major
studio drama in the seventies.

Lambert is very much a seventies kind of stoic hero, and it
wouldn’t be hard to imagine Clint Eastwood in the role if this had been made
back then. Renner is certainly more than up to the task here in the present,
though, allowing his human side to come through while at the same time always exuding strength, decency, and determination.

Olsen’s Banner is sort of the audience surrogate in the
film, letting us see “the rez” through her inexperienced eyes. It would have
been nice if she had been given one or two moments to display a little more
competence, and thus warrant the compliment Lambert pays her late in the film, but again like a seventies film, WIND RIVER is decidedly masculine.

Rounding out the main cast is Graham Greene as the
reservation’s chief law officer Ben. It’s a nice little character part, and
Greene, perhaps best know for his Oscar nominated role in DANCES WITH WOLVES, does his usual fine work.

Although this is his first time directing from his own
screenplay, Sheridan has previously helmed the low budget horror film VILE, which perhaps we’ll check out
here on the Cleveland Movie Blog for this year’s 31 Days of Halloween. Anyway,
he knows his way around a camera, and around actors (Sheridan has also been an
actor himself). There’s nothing flashy about his style; just solid, meat and
potatoes American filmmaking that puts character, theme, and story front and
center, but also knows when to pull the camera back for a nice wilderness shot.

There’s still symbolism to be found, though, like the spider crawling over the
snow in one brief shot. It’s just not the heavy-handed music video style visuals
that have become de rigueur.

Us old people appreciate that kind of thing. And I imagine
the over-thirty crowd will appreciate most of what Sheridan is putting forth
with WIND RIVER. 3 out of 4 stars.